Porras v. State, 295 Ga. 412

Porras was convicted by a DeKalb County jury of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the August 15, 2009 killing of Jameelah Qureshi.
Evidence showed Porras had begun a sexual relationship with Qureshi’s daughter as a minor in 2005 and later persisted despite probation conditions prohibiting contact.
Dove testified as a key eyewitness and described Porras disguising himself as a woman and shooting Qureshi; Smith corroborated parts of Dove’s account.
Investigators later found handwritten scripts and a prepaid cell card in Porras’s home, which suggested plans to claim responsibility and contained unreleased information.
Porras challenged the jury instructions on impeachment and the potential coerciveness of deliberations; the State and defense positions were considered on appeal.
The court affirmed the convictions, finding no reversible error, and addressed the impeachment charge and potential coercion issues as harmless or non-prejudicial under the totality of circumstances.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Impeachment by prior felony convictions not charged	Porras argues the court erred by not instructing impeachment by prior felony conviction.	State contends the omission was harmless given other credibility factors.	Harmless error; no reversal given the witnesses' limited impact and corroborating evidence.
Coercive jury charges	Porras claims the charges coerced the jury into returning a verdict.	State contends charges were not coercive overall and were within allowable limits.	No reversible coercion; totality of circumstances showed no undue coercion and verdict proper.
Sufficiency of the evidence	Not explicitly raised as a separate issue; Porras disputes only jury instructions.	N/A-directed here for context; evidence viewed favorably supports verdict.	Evidence sufficient to sustain convictions under Jackson v. Virginia standard.

Sapp v. State, 271 Ga. 446 (1999) (impeachment by prior felony conviction required if relevant; error harmless in some contexts)
McIntyre v. State, 266 Ga. 7 (1995) (harmless error analysis for impeachment instructions)
Brown v. State, 289 Ga. 259 (2011) (harm analysis for trial error means error did not contribute to verdict)
Wakefield v. State, 261 Ga. App. 474 (2003) (impeachment of witnesses with prior felonies; credibility considerations)
Allen v. United States, 164 U.S. 492 (1896) (allen charge canon; general instruction on deliberations and verdict expectation)
Sears v. State, 270 Ga. 834 (1999) (standard for evaluating whether coercive jury instruction undermined fairness)
McMillan v. State, 253 Ga. 520 (1984) (coercive-deliberation instruction framework; totality of circumstances)
Porter v. State, 278 Ga. 694 (2004) (standard for evaluating claimed coercive charges)
Gamble v. State, 291 Ga. 581 (2012) (reaffirmation of reviewing coercive jury instructions)